'It feels like I've only recently been discovered in the past 10 years...' Amanda Holden makes bold career admission
Amanda Holden has been on TV for decades, but the star feels she has had a lot more opportunities in the "past three years".
Amanda Holden feels she has "only recently been discovered in the past 10 years".
The 54-year-old media personality feels "lucky" to have landed many TV jobs before she was 30, such as playing Bridge Street Market trader Carmen for almost two months in the hit BBC One soap EastEnders in 1994.
However, the star - who began presenting the Heart Breakfast radio show with Jamie Theakston 54, in June 2019 - feels she has received a lot more opportunities in the "past three years".
Amanda - who, with comedian Alan Carr, 49, is in Corfu, Greece, to film the fourth series of their hit home renovation show for the BBC, which began in 2023 - told the new issue of Britain's HELLO! magazine: "I've had a very good career, but it's gone nuts in the past three years.
"I left drama school and gave myself until 30 to make it, and although I was lucky, it happened way before then.
"It feels like I've only recently been discovered in the past 10 years.
"If someone had told me at 21 that I'd have the best years in my 50s ... first of all, I'd be like, 'Have I really got to wait that long?'
"But also, 'How b***** brilliant.'"
Amanda - who has been a judge on ITV1's Britain's Got Talent since the show began in 2007 - is delighted that people of all ages can get into showbusiness.
She said: "What's great about this industry is that there isn't an age limit anymore.
"I'm hugely supportive of all the gorgeous, brilliant girls coming up behind me, and they're super-sweet to me as well.
"It's lovely and it's a bit of a bigger umbrella for women. I think it's the boys who are suffering a bit now.
"I just don't think age is a thing anymore."
And Amanda's daughters - Lexi, 19, and Hollie, 13 - appear to be keen on following in their mum's showbusiness footsteps.
Lexi is signed to Storm Models, and Hollie has just landed her first runway show, which will take place later on in 2025.
Amanda - who has been married to music producer Chris Hughes, 51, since 2008 - said: "Hollie is only 13 but is all over the make-up situation - she's got piles of it - and actually does really good make-up, although the lip-line is a bit much.
"It's the first thing she does when she comes home from school.
"That generation is always playing to an audience, and they all have weird American accents.
"I'm like, 'I am not your bro!'"
